Child Report of Post-traumatic Symptoms

Overview

Acronym:

CROPS

Author(s):

Ricky Greenwald, Psy.D.

Citation:

Greenwald, R., & Rubin, A. (1999). Brief assessment of children's post-traumatic symptoms: Development and preliminary validation of parent and child scales. Research on Social Work Practice, 9, 61-75.

The CROPS is a self-report measure for children and adolescents that assesses a broad range of post-traumatic symptoms, with or without an identified trauma, and can be used to measure changes in symptomatology over time.

Domain(s) Assessed :

Traumatic Stress

Language(s) :

English

Bosnian

Dutch

Finnish

German

Italian

Spanish

Other Language(s) Available:

Persian

Age Range:

7-17

Measure Type:

Screening

# of Items:

26

Measure Format:

Questionnaire

Average Time to Complete (min):

5

Reporter Type:

Self

Average Time to Score (min):

1

Periodicity:

Past 7 days

Response Format:

3-point rating: 0=none; 1=some, 2=lots

Materials Needed:

Paper/Pencil

Sample Item(s):

Domains

Scale

Sample Items

Posttraumatic stress symptoms (child)

I daydream.

I try to forget about bad things that have happened.

I feel all alone.

Information Provided:

Areas of Concern/Risks

Continuous Assessment

Raw Scores

Training

Training to Interpret:

Prior Experience Psych Testing/Interpretation

Parallel/Alternate Forms

Parallel Form:

No

Alternate Form:

No

Different Age Forms:

No

Altered Version Forms:

No

Describe Alternative Forms:

Although there is a Parent Report of Post-traumatic Symptoms (PROPS), which is also reviewed in this database, the author reports that “the CROPS and PROPS are not altered versions of one another. They are related by name, author, and coverage of items from the same item pool . . . However, they’re entirely different forms, with different histories, different items,and different formats.

Another critical difference is that the CROPS focuses on thoughts and feelings (internal processes), whereas the PROPS focuses on observable behaviors (externals); there is some item overlap but many more items . . . are not repeated from one instrument to the other.

TEST-RETESTA second study, found the 6-month test-retest reliability to be r=.70. Parallel/Alternate Forms: Examined reliability between the CROPS and the PROPS.Correlations are consistent with the literature examining agreement between parent and child reports.

References for Content Validity:

(Greenwald & Rubin, 1999)Original items reflect symptoms found to be prominent in Fletcher's (1993) meta-analysis of the child-trauma literature and symptoms characteristic of DSM-IV PTSD criteria. "Original items were evaluated by a team of 5 academic and clinical experts in child trauma, forcontent validity as well as clarity."

Items were also piloted on a treatment sample of 30 children to examine comprehension and sensitivity to change. This process resulted in the elimination of over half the items and revision of many.

Thus 28 items were retained that appeared to be comprehensible to children and to change along with the child's post-traumatic stress status.

The author reports that “following the first large validation study (Greenwald & Rubin, 1999) two more items were eliminated, leaving 26.”

Construct Validity:

Validity Type

Not known

Not found

Nonclincal Samples

Clinical Samples

Diverse Samples

Convergent/Concurrent

Yes

Yes

Discriminant

Yes

Sensitive to Change

Yes

Yes

Intervention Effects

Yes

Longitudinal/Maturation Effects

Yes

Sensitive to Theoretically Distinct Groups

Yes

Factorial Validity

Yes

References for Construct Validity:

Many of the CROPS studies have been conducted in other countries including in Bosnia, Germany, and the Netherlands. The majority were conducted with community samples recruited from schools. One study (Greenwald et al., 2001) examined the psychometrics in a juvenile justice population.

CROPS scores have been found to correlate with TSCC (r=.70) and Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Survey scores (r=.74). The CROPS also correlates in the expected direction with measures of distress, family stress, neuroticism, and mastery, and with the degree of trauma a child had experienced. (Greenwald & Rubin, 1999; Greenwald et al., 2001).

An exploratory principal components factor analysis with an oblique rotation suggested a three-factor structure, based on the scree test. The first factor contained a wide-range of items including self-alienation and dysphoria. The second contained somatic symptoms, and the third contained items associated with avoidance and intrusive thoughts. A second-order factor analysis suggested that each scale could be conceptualized within the single overarching construct of post-traumatic symptoms.

In a study of 15 sexually abused Iranian girls randomly assigned to CBT or EMDR treatment, the CROPS showed evidence of sensitivity to intervention effects, with pre- to post-test comparisons showing significant improvement for the EMDR group but not the CBT group (Jaberghaderi, Greenwald, Rubin, Zand, & Dolatabadi, 2004).

The PROPS and CROPS were also used in a randomized trial of 29 boys with conduct problems. Boys were randomly assigned to standard care (residential or day treatment) or standard care plus 3 trauma-focused EMDR sessions. No significant treatment differences were found with the CROPS or PROPS. Both groups decreased on the Impact of Events Scale, 8-item version (IES-8), with a trend favoring the treatment group. The authors suggested the difference in findings between the IES-8 and CROPS/PROPS may be because the IES-8 focused on a specific traumatic memory, which was the target of treatment, whereas the CROPS and PROPS are more broad-spectrum trauma measures (Soberman, Greenwald, & Rule, 2002).

The CROPS was used in a study examining the effects of indirect exposure to the 9/11 attacks (Saylor, Cowart, Lipovsky, Jackson, & Finch, 2003). PROPS scores and scores on the Pediatric Emotional Distress Scale (another parentreport measure) were related to exposure to negative and positive media images, but CROPS scores were not.

Criterion Validity:

Not Known

Not Found

Nonclinical Samples

Clinical Samples

Diverse Samples

Predictive Validity:

Yes

Postdictive Validity:

Yes

Overall Psychometric Limitations:

Information regarding psychometrics can be found on the author’s website athttp://www.childtrauma.com (click on Assessment).

1. Greenwald & Rubin (1999) report cut scores based on comparisons of a scale rating the degree of trauma that a child experienced (1=no significant trauma or loss, 2=possibility of some significant trauma or loss, 3=significant trauma or loss likely to have occurred, and4=significant trauma or loss definitely occurred).

2. Psychometrics from the Greenwald & Rubin (1999) studies are based on a community sample of volunteers, with a response rate of 20% in urban schools and 23% in rural schools.

3. Psychometrics have not been fully established with trauma populations. While a study used the CROPS with 51 kids in post-disaster treatment in a CMHC in the Netherlands, this study did not establish the reliability of the measure with this population. It did demonstratesome validity data, but not enough to indicate in the review that the CROPS has established validity and reliability within this trauma population. (deRoos, Greenwald, de Jongh, & Noorthoorn, 2004).

4. The majority of studies involving the CROPS and PROPS have involved school samples. While many of these samples have been conducted in other countries and have demonstrated evidence for the reliability and validity of the measure in German, Bosnian, and Scottish samples, more research is needed examining the use of the measure with diverse ethnic groups in the United States, with clinic populations, and with specific trauma groups.

5. The Greenwald & Rubin (1999) study reports on the validity of a 28-item CROPS. The latest version has 26 items. While the change in the measure most likely represents an improvement and the psychometrics are most likely similar, research is needed examining the psychometrics of the most recent version of the CROPS.

6. The author notes that additional reliability and validity data from the Netherlands study are being prepared for publication.

Translation Quality

Language(s) Other Than English:

Language:

Translated

Back Translated

Reliable

Good Psychometrics

Similar Factor Structure

Norms Available

Measure Developed for this Group

1. Spanish

Yes

Yes

Unk

Unk

Unk

Unk

Unk

2. German

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Unk

3. Bosnian

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Unk

4. Presian

Yes

Yes

Yes

Unk

Unk

Unk

Unk

5. Dutch

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Unk

Unk

Unk

6. Italian

Yes

Unk

Unk

Unk

Unk

Unk

Unk

7. Finnish

Yes

Yes

Unk

Unk

Unk

Unk

Unk

8. French (Canadian)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Unk

Unk

Unk

Unk

Population Information

Population Used For Measure Development:

A volunteer community sample of 54 rural and 152 urban schoolchildren in grades 4-8, and their parents. The response rate was 20% for the urban schools and 23% for the rural schools. Median age of children was 11.5, with a range from 8 to 15; 49% were male, 51% female.

Of the 77 parents who indicated educational status, 17% did not graduate high school, 54% went no further than high school, 38% attended college or a trade school but did not graduate, and 17% graduated college.

Measure has demonstrated evidence of reliability and validity in which populations?:

4. Measure has been shown to be reliable and valid in a number of samples outside the U.S..

5. After the initial purchase, the measure is free.

6. As the author reports, “the instrument appears to be equally sensitive to PTSD symptoms of both genders. This is important because in many other PTSD studies, the girls look worse than the boys; that may be an artifact of the instrumentation.”

Cons:

1. Measure is not yet standardized (no norms).

2. More research is needed examining the use of the measure with clinical samples.

3. While the measure has been translated into a number of different languages, caution should be used in interpreting the measures, given that psychometrics are not fully explored with the different language versions. Some versions, such as the German and Bosnian versions have much more research than others (e.g., Spanish) do.

4. The majority of studies have not yet been published or subjected to full peer review.

References:

The reference for the manual is:

Greenwald, R., & Rubin, A. (1999). Brief assessment of children's post-traumatic symptoms: Development and preliminary validation of parent and child scales. Research on Social Work Practice, 9, 61-75.

A PsychInfo literature search (7/05) for “Child Report of Post-traumatic Symptoms" or "CROPS” anywhere and correspondence with the author revealed that the measure has been referenced in 3 peer-reviewed journal articles.